What is up with all the seismic activity lately, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc?
There are about 50-60 volcanic eruptions on earth per year, or roughly one per week. Since eruptive episodes usually last longer than a week, there are usually multiple erupting volcanoes on earth at any one time. The average number of earthquakes per year is around 30,000, or nearly 100 per day. About fifteen quakes per year are larger than magnitude 7, more than one a month. The Wasatch fault zone in Utah is very active, with an estimated recurrence time of around 350 years for large (up to magnitude 7.5) earthquakes. Link is to a Utah Geological Survey report on the Wasatch fault. In short, nothing unusual is going on. Random events will occur in random clusters at random intervals, and the spread of internet-based news reporting worldwide means that more random things will be publicized.
